This book pretty much checked all the boxes for me! It is a great speculative story with fun sci-fi elements. This story picks up seven years after humanity was told that they have been living in a simulation. Getting that answered spurs way more questions than answers and the characters of this book all grapple with this information differently.

The variety of characters are brought together on a bus tour that’s traveling cross country, visiting the newly appeared “Impossibles,” which are geographic miracles that defy physics that are sprinkled across the country. And each one is stranger than the last.

One of the passengers is a professor with quite the backstory that is revealed as the story unfolds. She’s embedded herself on this bus tour to hide from a group of young men who believe the Matrix is real and that’s the simulation they’re inside. I loved the references to the film franchise in this book and adds a ton of entertainment value - and great context of a simulation if you’re familiar with the films.

Other characters include a young pregnant social media influencer, a couple of nuns, a rabbi (no I am not setting up a joke,) a pair of middle aged men BFFs (the story is mainly centered around these two guys) and octogenarians who always want to get it on.

Overall all the characters are strong and the plot is great. There are some crazy theoretical sci-fi parts that center mostly around sim theory and computer science. But full grasp of these isn’t essential to following the book and they’re kind of fun, if you ask me!

Thanks to Saga Press, Netgalley and Daryl Gregory for the complimentary ebook in exchange for my honest feedback.

Are you looking for an adventure? Well then, hop on the bus for the North American Impossibles Tour, an eight day ride through the physics puzzles of the land—you’ll see the Frozen Tornado, the Hollow Flock, the Zipper, and Ghost City! It’s the tour guide’s first day on the job but don’t worry, she’s got anxiety and a binder to guide you. It’s been seven years since the Announcement that we’re all actually living in a simulation, and the simulation has started to, well, glitch. But now that everyone’s done freaking out about it, we can monetize that, right? Right. On board is a cast of vibrant characters—narratively referred to by their archetypes, like THE INFLUENCER, THE RABBI, and THE HONEYMOONERS—that are either going to band together or do severe psychic damage to each other. Daryl Gregory’s latest is an absolute riot and a joy from the jump. As the characters wrestle with reality (and each other), we’re taken on a whirlwind tour of weirdness. And I, for one, could not be more ready to go.

Who's up for a scifi road trip? A Hitchhiker's Guide-style romp through The Matrix? Or maybe a futuristic retooling of Canterbury Tales?

Sound like fun? Sign me up!

"Begin again! Yesterday is just information to help you decide how you want to live today!"

(The Reader is my favorite character. 🤫)

Highly recommend this one! Just enough weird mixed with just enough sentiment! And a little Wonderland for the icing on the cake!

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.
If you love dystopian style books, this is it.
The detail of the characters is so well written, descriptive and the adventures really make yoy wonder if this is where society is headed in the future.
This book will definitely keep your attention.

Hi!

This is my review of When We Were Real by Daryl Gregory.

This book was fantastic! It was a bit longer than I usually read, but it was totally worth it. The way the stories all come together in the end is so tragic and incredible. I fell in love with so many of these characters.

The way the characters are developed throughout the book is great. At the beginning, they are reduced to titles. As the story goes on, however, they are completely fleshed out.

This is a great book, and I strongly recommend it.

When We Were Real is near-near-future SF, or possibly present-day SF in any one of a number of realities. The concept -- we are all living in a simulation, and were made aware of this seven years ago -- is intriguing. A varied cast of characters are on a bus tour organized by Canterbury Trails (two nuns this time, Chaucer lovers!), visiting a series of Impossibles left behind by whoever is actually running the simulation. These sites are all violations of the laws of nature, physics, or both, and the pilgrims themselves are pretty messed up to begin with.

The author's omniscient point of view allows him to shift from character to character, generally one character per chapter, as the story moves forward. This works well most of the time, though it took me a while to get everyone straightened out and keep track of whose personal plotlines were intersecting. The Impossibles themselves (beginning with a Frozen Tornado and progressing in orders of weirdness to the Zipper) are the most obviously sfnal bits of the book. The hard-science explanations of why they're Impossible do tend to bog down the narrative a bit, however

Gregory is a terminally witty writer, and I found myself highlighting numerous lines as I clicked through the chapters. The plot situations become increasingly bizarre, occasionally at the expense of clarity. If you're a fan of surreal, consciously literary work, this isn't likely to bother you. If you're accustomed to more conventionally linear texts, it may.

There's plenty to think about here, and more than enough action (physical and emotional) to keep the pages turning/clicking. The last couple of chapters, however, were a real disappointment to me. Although most plot entanglements get untangled, at least one does so in a brutally random manner. The resolution draws upon several possible endings -- which makes sense within the context of "reality" as a simulation, but leaves a last impression of vagueness. I'd call this a solid four-star read for those seeking SF-flavored Literature -- but for mainstream SF readers like myself, possibly a three.

Wow, I really liked this one. It had so many layers that I wasn't expecting, especially as I got closer to the end.

When I started the story, something about it made me think of Tom Robbins... I think maybe it was the way the narration began by defining each character's role. Or maybe it was the irreverent tone? Or the absurdist streak defining the events taking place? Either way, I suspected I was in for a treat.

It felt like there were a lot of characters to keep track of in the beginning, but they were well drawn so that helped. Although not everyone was given proper names, no one was extraneous and even the smaller characters had an arc.

I always love imaginative stories and the way the plot unfolded was so creative and fun. The book blurb came across as a bit silly but the stakes felt real as we got to know these strangers and their backstories. I appreciated the new philosophies that had evolved as the characters has adjusted to their "new" circumstances... and just how much stayed the same. The major questions are all still unanswered: Who's in charge? What happens next? Does free will exist?

Nit-Picks: I found some of the settings to be confusing, especially the physics of the Zipper. Every time the author described where something was located within the Zipper, I couldn't picture it and I finally gave up trying. I also found myself pulled out of the story when it came to Lisa Marie. A 9-month-pregnant lady can't lay on her back because the baby is too heavy... and a baby can't be manually held in the mother's body when it's trying to be born. It will go into fetal distress and die in a very short time, which is why emergency c-sections are done quickly and urgently. I know this will not be a big deal for the vast majority of the audience but I found it to be super distracting.

Beyond that, I was a huge fan of this story. I LOVED the final chapter in Ghost City. I plan to read the whole thing again and see what I discover this time around. I suspect it will be as one of the Octos says, the book seems to change every time you read it.

I'm so glad I was able to read this ahead of publication and I look forward to buying a hard copy once it's available.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The characters and plot were all enjoyable and good but the philosophical underpinnings of the world that the author created are really what make the book special. Deeply thought provoking while telling a ridiculously fun story. Highly recommend.

The concept of this story drew me in as it follows a broad cast of characters living in a simulation as they go on a bus tour to see strange anomalies that are essentially glitches in the matrix. The characters are fully aware that they live in a sim which felt like a unique choice as it took away the classic "what is reality" trope stories like this tend to lean on. Instead, the author centers the novel around vivid descriptions of the setting, which gives the reader a better understanding of the simulation but also immerses us in the bus tour with the characters.

As the story changes POV to each of the main cast of characters on the bus, its clear that the author put a lot of care into making them well-rounded and memorable. I will say at times it was hard to keep up with all of them and some characters had more compelling motivations while others seemed to just be along for the journey.

ARC received through NetGalley

Two best friends take a week long bus trip across the country. What could go wrong? As it turns out, a lot!

I was initially dubious of the multi-pov, but the writing was great, and I quickly became immersed and invested in the characters and their stories. I basically read this book in one sitting, and I"ll be fully reviewing this on Goodreads later, but I would highly recommend!

A pair of friends set off across a trip of Impossible America after one of them is rediagnosed with cancer and the entire world is diagnosed as a simulation. With them is a whole bus full of zany characters, like an influencer, a pair of nuns traveling with a rabbi, and a mysterious woman running from something.
I wanted to enjoy it. But it was slow, dull, and soooooo pretentious.

I liked this a lot. It was thought-provoking, funny, serious, silly and mind-altering. It wasn't perfect, but it was enjoyable (mostly). The end felt a little rushed and the last 20% wasn't my cup of tea, either, but the previous 80% more than made up for it.

I was mostly taken with the relationship between JP and Dulin. I know these guys; I am one of those guys. The author's ability to accurately describe their friendship is really well-done and appreciated by me.

The sci-fi part of this was harder for me to grasp; it didn't make or break the story -- it added depth.

I'd read more from the author.

I received a complimentary copy of the novel from the publisher and NetGalley, and my review is being left freely.

Imagine you find out you not only live in a simulation but are part of it. Someone always has to find a way to make money out of an opportunity. The result, bus loads of people taking a trip across the country to see the Impossibles, the glitches within the simulation, and they are doozies. We join an eclectic group, including a cancer patient and his best friend, a rabbi, nun and novice questioning whether you pray to God or the simulators, a podcaster seeking to disprove the glitches traveling with his son, a 9 month pregnant girl who doesn’t want to be erased, and a mysterious woman who crashes the tour.

Each stop has a new “wonder of the world” becoming stranger and weirder and they travel forward to their end destination, Ghost City. Each character is so developed that you will not have trouble keeping them apart. Their exploits and stories are shuffled and redealt numerous times to keep you reading and wondering how this adventure will end. There are some existential moments that make you pause but you will want to get back on the bus to see how the insanity ends.

It is a fun, clever, inventive story that will keep you engaged throughout.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this advance copy.

Thanks to S&S/Saga Press and NetGalley for supplying this ARC of Daryl Gregory's 'When We Were Real.'

Very enjoyable speculative yarn which sees a US coast-to-coast road trip overlaid with 'The Matrix.'

A group of individuals takes a bus trip across the US in the wake of the fairly recent 'Announcement' revealing (or confirming!) that everyone is living in a computer simulation. Each character is 'LABELLED' initially and then fleshed out into real (or digital real) people with names, histories, and goals for the journey. There are too many to go into here but they're all very enjoyable and likeable but with 'human' flaws.

The trip is to visit 'The Impossibles,' the equivalent of our real-world roadside curiosities (think the world's biggest ball of string or Cadillac Ranch) but should be physical impossibilities but are, nonetheless, there to be seen, touched, and experienced. We experience The Impossibles and the journey as a whole through multiple character viewpoints and, as you'd imagine, all of the various character arcs begin to converge and cross as the book progresses.

There are a couple of narrative sidetracks which could be deemed to be superfluous and don't really aid the progress of the story but even those are enjoyable in their own right.

This is a funny, heartwarming book but does come with many opportunities to dive into the serious and thought-provoking.

I'd love to see this as a TV series though it might be very expensive to make.

Oh my goodness, this book is so good.
It was a bit confusing at first, Because there are a lot of characters to keep track of. But after the Frozen Tornado it got easier to remember peoples names and what was going on.

The characters are the drivers of this novel. They each have their own reasons for being on the tour and each one has a story to tell. Yet they all intermingle and play well off each other.

This book will make you wonder if you are in a simulation yourself. What is your thoughts on creators? What would you do with faced with a choice that is your family or the lives of all future beings?

I think that everyone can find a character to like/learn from in this novel.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in philosophy, a mult verse lover, and just a good book.

Thanks to NetGalley and Saga Press for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions within are my own.

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This book took me for a ride! Obviously the base concept intrigued me. But then, we started with what sure looked like an omniscient POV, something I don't love to put it mildly. The beginning was a bit slow. Many characters appeared to be nonentities, and some annoyed me. A passage here or there reminded me that Gregory could have used a sensitivity reader or five.

But then! The pace picked up. The further in I got, the faster the pages started turning. The omniscient POV from the beginning turned out to be a rare occurrence, and, better yet, turned out to have a purpose and a voice. Previously-ignored characters got their moments in the sun. Some characters who'd previously aggravated me proved to have enough depth I felt something for them. (Looking at you, Dulin.) Some didn't so much grow as remain irredeemable, shallow human garbage (looking at you, Lisa Marie,) but at least they drove plot. The philosophical underpinnings of the setting were explored with soul and nuance and no easy answers.

If this book was a duology, I'd rate the first half two stars, and the second half four. Because the end half is obviously fresher in my mind, I was tempted to give this book four stars over all, but a three is more objective and accurate, so three stars it gets.

Although there are some ties to a Matrix-like storyline, there is a lot of inventive imagery in this adventure. The impossibles are such fun elements - My favorite are the sheep! The backdrop of the story is a bus tour that visits and explores these impossibles, and it is like a pilgrimage that everyone should make during their lifetime. The bus full of random strangers gives you a crosscut of society, and the personalities feel so real, even though they are called just as often by their position as by their name. The repeated lifetimes seemed to have no purpose to me, and I can't say that I fully understood the ending. I still had fun on the trip alongside the Engineer for the most part. I absolutely hated Lisa Marie and not-so-secretly plotted her demise - if only the author shared my vision! I feel that there is a message that I am missing or a correlation that I overlooked that would make this book phenomenal to me. The story is a big life-changing adventure to those on the trip, and it was creative and entertaining to read!

Gregory seems endlessly inventive; this novel is set in a world with irrefutable proof that we live in a simulation, including Impossibles, which are phenomena that can’t be explained using physics (as well as a weekly text reminder that we are living in a simulation beamed to everyone’s brain—not clear what happens if the recipient can’t read). Some have responded with nihilism, considering everyone else (except perhaps fellow gun-toting, Matrix-loving incels) to be bots. On a tour of seven American Impossibles, a pregnant influencer, a rabbi, a nun (and accompanying novice), two German tourists, a would-be right-wing podcaster and his feckless son, a comic book writer, and his best friend, a retired engineer, join an inexperienced tour guide and seen-everything bus driver. But the trip gets more complicated when a fugitive joins them. Her mission is mysterious but urgent. Each of the characters has a distinctive perspective—the Engineer (“The thing is ridiculously oversized and out of scale, like a Koons Balloon Dog. He also doesn’t know how he feels when he looks at a Koons Balloon Dog.”), the Realist’s Son (“Why was anyone shocked that the world was not in our control, and that nothing we did mattered? The Simulators could hit reset at any time. Or climate change would kill us all. Same difference.”), and so on. I loved it.

I received a free e-arc of this book through Netgalley. I assume the title is referring to an earlier time because in the book's setting, it's been 7 years since everyone found out they are living in a simulation. There are a lot of layers to this book. I do like that the main characters were defined on the sightseeing bus trip to see The Impossibles which are things which couldn't exist on Earth as we know it today. The story kept my attention and I cared about many of the characters.